{"id":32031,"date":"2022-08-01T11:07:44","date_gmt":"2022-08-01T11:07:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/nichelle-nichols-lt-uhura-on-star-trek-has-died-at-89\/"},"modified":"2022-08-01T11:07:44","modified_gmt":"2022-08-01T11:07:44","slug":"nichelle-nichols-lt-uhura-on-star-trek-has-died-at-89","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/nichelle-nichols-lt-uhura-on-star-trek-has-died-at-89\/","title":{"rendered":"Nichelle Nichols, Lt. Uhura on ‘Star Trek,’ has died at 89"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Nichelle Nichols, who broke barriers for Black women in Hollywood when she played communications officer Lt. Uhura on the original \u201cStar Trek\u201d television series, has died at the age of 89. <\/p>\n

Kyle Johnson said Nichols died Saturday in Silver City, New Mexico.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast night, my mother, Nichelle Nichols, succumbed to natural causes and passed away. Her light however, like the ancient galaxies now being seen for the first time, will remain for us and future generations to enjoy, learn from, and draw inspiration, \u201dJohnson wrote on her official Facebook page Sunday. \u201cHers was a life well lived and as such a model for us all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her role in the 1966-69 series as Lt. Uhura earned Nichols a lifelong position of honor with the series’ rabid fans, known as Trekkers and Trekkies. It also earned her accolades for breaking stereotypes that had limited Black women to acting roles as servants and included an interracial onscreen kiss with co-star William Shatner that was unheard of at the time. <\/p>\n

\u201cI shall have more to say about the trailblazing, incomparable Nichelle Nichols, who shared the bridge with us as Lt. Uhura of the USS Enterprise, and who passed today at age 89,\u201d George Takei wrote on Twitter. \u201cFor today, my heart is heavy, my eyes shining like the stars you now rest among, my dearest friend.\u201d<\/p>\n

Takei played Sulu in the original \u201cStar Trek\u201d series alongside Nichols. But her impact was felt beyond her immediate co-stars, and many others in the \u201cStar Trek\u201d world also tweeted their condolences. <\/p>\n

Celia Rose Gooding, who currently plays Uhura in \u201cStar Trek: Strange New Worlds,\u201d wrote on Twitter that Nichols \u201cmade room for so many of us. She was the reminder that not only can we reach the stars, but our influence is essential to their survival. Forget shaking the table, she built it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cStar Trek: Voyager\u201d alum Kate Mulgrew tweeted, \u201cNichelle Nichols was The First. She was a trailblazer who navigated a very challenging trail with grit, grace, and a gorgeous fire we are not likely to see again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like other original cast members, Nichols also appeared in six big-screen spinoffs starting in 1979 with \u201cStar Trek: The Motion Picture\u201d and frequented \u201cStar Trek\u201d fan conventions. She also served for many years as a NASA recruiter, helping bring minorities and women into the astronaut corps.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
<\/div>\n
\"youtube<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Nichols broke barriers for Black women in Hollywood <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

More recently, she had a recurring role on television’s \u201cHeroes,\u201d playing the great-aunt of a young boy with mystical powers.<\/p>\n

The original \u201cStar Trek\u201d premiered on NBC on Sept. 8, 1966. Its multicultural, multiracial cast was creator Gene Roddenberry’s message to viewers that in the far-off future \u2014 the 23rd century \u2014 human diversity would be fully accepted.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think many people took it into their hearts … that what was being said on TV at that time was a reason to celebrate,\u201d Nichols said in 1992 when a \u201cStar Trek\u201d exhibit was on view at the Smithsonian Institution.<\/p>\n

She often recalled how Martin Luther King Jr. was a fan of the show and praised every role. She met him at a civil rights gathering in 1967, at a time when she had decided not to return for the show’s second season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I told him I was going to miss my co-stars and I was leaving the show, he became very serious and said, ‘You cannot do that,’\u201d she told The Tulsa (Okla.) World in a 2008 interview. <\/p>\n

\u201c’You’ve changed the face of television forever, and therefore, you’ve changed the minds of people,’\u201d she said the civil rights leader told her. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat foresight Dr. King had was a lightning bolt in my life,\u201d Nichols said.<\/p>\n

During the show’s third season, Nichols’ character and Shatner’s Capt. James Kirk shared what was described as the first interracial kiss to be broadcast on a US television series. In the episode, \u201cPlato’s Stepchildren,\u201d their characters, who always maintained a platonic relationship, were forced into the kiss by aliens who were controlling their actions.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

<\/svg><\/p>\n

00:00<\/p>\n

\n

AP entertainment correspondent Oscar Wells Gabriel reports on Obit Nichelle Nichols<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The kiss \u201csuggested that there was a future where these issues were not such a big deal,\u201d Eric Deggans, a television critic for National Public Radio, told The Associated Press in 2018. \u201cThe characters themselves were not freaking out because a Black woman was kissing a white man … In this utopian-like future, we solved this issue. We’re beyond it. That was a wonderful message to send.\u201d<\/p>\n

Worried about reaction from Southern television stations, showrunners wanted to film a second take of the scene where the kiss happened off-screen. But Nichols said in her book, \u201cBeyond Uhura: Star Trek and Other Memories,\u201d that she and Shatner deliberately flubbed lines to force the original take to be used.<\/p>\n

Despite concerns, the episode aired without blowback. In fact, it got the most \u201cfan mail that Paramount had ever gotten on ‘Star Trek’ for one episode,\u201d Nichols said in a 2010 interview with the Archive of American Television.<\/p>\n

Shatner tweeted Sunday: \u201cI am so sorry to hear about the passing of Nichelle. She was a beautiful woman & she played an admirable character that did so much for redefining social issues both here in the US & throughout the world. \u201d<\/p>\n

Born Grace Dell Nichols in Robbins, Illinois, Nichols hated being called \u201cGracie,\u201d which everyone insisted on, she said in the 2010 interview. When she was a teen her mother told her she had wanted to name her Michelle, but she thought she ought to have alliterative initials like Marilyn Monroe, whom she Nichols loved. Hence, \u201cNichelle.\u201d <\/p>\n

Nichols first worked professionally as a singer and dancer in Chicago at age 14, moving on to New York nightclubs and working for a time with the Duke Ellington and Lionel Hampton bands before coming to Hollywood for her film debut in 1959’s \u201cPorgy and Bess,\u201d the first of several small film and TV roles that led up to her \u201cStar Trek\u201d stardom. <\/p>\n

Nichols was known as being unafraid to stand up to Shatner on the set when others complained that he was stealing scenes and camera time. They later learned she had a strong supporter in the show’s creator.<\/p>\n

In her 1994 book, \u201cBeyond Uhura,\u201d she said she met Roddenberry when she guest starred on his show \u201cThe Lieutenant,\u201d and the two had an affair a couple of years before \u201cStar Trek\u201d began. The two remained lifelong close friends. <\/p>\n

Another fan of Nichols and the show was future astronaut Mae Jemison, who became the first black woman in space when she flew aboard the shuttle Endeavour in 1992.<\/p>\n

In an AP interview before her flight, Jemison said she watched Nichols on \u201cStar Trek\u201d all the time, adding she loved the show. Jemison eventually got to meet Nichols.<\/p>\n

Nichols was a regular at \u201cStar Trek\u201d conventions and events into her 80s, but her schedule became limited starting in 2018 when her last announced that she was suffering from advanced dementia. <\/p>\n

Nichols was placed under a court conservatorship in the control of her son Johnson, who said her mental decline made her unable to manage her affairs or make public appearances. <\/p>\n

Some, including Nichols’ managers and her friend, film producer and actor Angelique Fawcett, objected to the conservatorship and sought more access to Nichols and to records of Johnson’s financial and other moves on her behalf. Her name was at times invoked at courthouse rallies that sought the freeing of Britney Spears from her own conservatorship. <\/p>\n

But the court consistently sided with Johnson, and over the objections of Fawcett allowed him to move Nichols to New Mexico, where she lived with him in her final years. <\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press Entertainment Writer Andrew Dalton contributed from Los Angeles. Former AP Writer Polly Anderson contributed biographical material to this report. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nichelle Nichols, who broke barriers for Black women in Hollywood when she played communications officer Lt. Uhura on the original \u201cStar Trek\u201d television series, has died at the age of 89. Kyle Johnson said Nichols died Saturday in Silver City, New Mexico. \u201cLast night, my mother, Nichelle Nichols, succumbed to natural causes and passed away. …<\/p>\n

Nichelle Nichols, Lt. Uhura on ‘Star Trek,’ has died at 89<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[5],"tags":[1118,597,5938,109,13252,13585,6933,9214,6474],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":31587,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/nichelle-nichols-trailblazing-star-trek-actress-dies-at-89\/","url_meta":{"origin":32031,"position":0},"title":"Nichelle Nichols, trailblazing ‘Star Trek’ actress, dies at 89","date":"July 31, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Last night, my mother, Nichelle Nichols, succumbed to natural causes and passed away. Her light however, like the ancient galaxies now being seen for the first time, will remain for us and future generations to enjoy, learn from, and draw inspiration ,\" Johnson said in a statement shared to Nichols'\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Entertainment"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":32115,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/nichelle-nichols-lt-uhura-on-star-trek-has-died-at-89-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":32031,"position":1},"title":"Nichelle Nichols, Lt. Uhura on ‘Star Trek,’ has died at 89","date":"August 1, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Nichelle Nichols, who broke barriers for Black women in Hollywood as communications officer Lt. Uhura on the original \"Star Trek\" television series, has died at the age of 89. Kyle Johnson said Nichols died Saturday in Silver City, New Mexico. \"Last night, my mother, Nichelle Nichols, succumbed to natural causes\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Entertainment"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":32188,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/george-takei-jj-abrams-and-more-pay-tribute-to-late-star-trek-actress-nichelle-nichols\/","url_meta":{"origin":32031,"position":2},"title":"George Takei, JJ Abrams and more pay tribute to late ‘Star Trek’ actress Nichelle Nichols","date":"August 1, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Nichols had played Enterprise crew member Nyota Uhura on the series and multiple \"Trek\" films. \"I shall have more to say about the trailblazing, incomparable Nichelle Nichols, who shared the bridge with us as Lt. Uhura of the USS Enterprise,\" Takei wrote on social media. \"For today, my heart is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Entertainment"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":33128,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/zoe-saldana-talks-about-nichelle-nichols-and-playing-uhura\/","url_meta":{"origin":32031,"position":3},"title":"Zoe Salda\u00f1a talks about Nichelle Nichols and playing Uhura","date":"August 2, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Zoe Saldanaphoto: Greg Doherty (Getty Images)TV icon Nichelle Nichols, who played Uhura on Star Trek and used her status to promote various ways to support women and people of color, died over the weekend at the age of 89. Nichols continued to be a part of the Star Trek family\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Entertainment"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":31782,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/george-takei-stacey-abrams-more-pay-tribute-the-hollywood-reporter\/","url_meta":{"origin":32031,"position":4},"title":"George Takei, Stacey Abrams, More Pay Tribute \u2013 The Hollywood Reporter","date":"August 1, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Hollywood is mourning the death of Nichelle Nichols, who made history for her portrayal of communications officer Lieutenant Uhura on Star Trek. Nichols died Saturday of natural causes at age 89, every son, Kyle Johnson, posted on Facebook. \u201cHer light however, like the ancient galaxies now being seen for the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Entertainment"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":31855,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/nichelle-nichols-death-pioneering-star-trek-actor-dies-aged-89\/","url_meta":{"origin":32031,"position":5},"title":"Nichelle Nichols death: Pioneering Star Trek actor dies, aged 89","date":"August 1, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Nichelle Nichols, the Star Trek actor whose role as an on-screen lieutenant on the bridge of a starship was a groundbreaking example of representation for Black Americans in Hollywood, died on Saturday (30 July). She was 89.Her death was confirmed on Instagram on Sunday (31 July) by the actor's son\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Entertainment"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/storage.googleapis.com\/afs-prod\/media\/d428b7508e6d4ad9aacffe46c758fde2\/3000.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32031"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32031\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}